Yuki awoke from her nightmare when a flash of cold water struck her muzzle, causing the wolfkin to blink in confusion. Blaguna’s image disappeared, and Yuki found herself sitting in the chair, dressed in a casual white shirt and linen pants, with a cross painted on her shirt. Her legs and arms were fine as usual.

"Your whining didn’t let me sleep, dog." Jeki said this angrily from the hospital bed. In one hand, the soultaker held an empty decanter. Her hand trembled, and the decanter nearly crashed against the floor, being caught by Yuki at the last moment.

"Well…This is awkward, "Yuki chuckled, returning the decanter to the table and climbing back into the chair with both legs. "I was going to wait for your wake-up, but you kind of got a jump on me."

"Not the first time, mutant," Jeki turned her face to look at the ceiling. One corner of her mouth was too low, giving her an ugly leer, and the teen still had trouble breathing. Luckily for her, she was a new breed. New breeds always recover from such side effects, if they live long enough. Yuki could still see the ugly scar on her chest, despite the blanket. It too will fade in time, leaving just a small spot. "Kill me or screw off, I don’t care which."

"Oh, but you do. You squealed for help like a little girl when my soulmate lobbed his darts into you," Yuki smiled wickedly, only for the soultaker to refuse the bait. "Then again, you are one. What will your people do to wolf hag Sonya?"

"Unfortunately, nothing," Jeki frowned in disgust. "Instead of killing this filthy mutant, they will give her back in one piece."

"Why are you hating us so much?" Yuki tilted her head to the side, sniffing the air. She could almost taste the fear and uncertainty radiating from the soultaker and decided to tone down her mocking a little. According to Geldi, the idiot is still under the age of 18, and since she recently survived a stroke, it was vital not to give her another. Both for Sonya's sake and the patient's sake.

"Because filth like you came to our land. Killing our people. Burning our cities…"

"This town sure didn’t burn."

"No disagreements on the first two? Thought so. Your kind spawned skinwalkers and brought them to our lands."

"By that fucked up logic, your kind and you, by extension, are responsible for burning the world. Or, if you don’t consider yourself human, for Blaguna’s crimes."

Jeki turned her head, looking Yuki right in the eyes with pure hatred. "One such bitch killed my brother. We were playing ball, and the next moment a gigantic shadow landed behind him and swallowed him whole before toying with me while wearing his skin!" The teen coughed, waving away Yuki’s attempt to give her water. "I don’t need anything from you, freak! Tell me, mutie, before the war, how many of your kind died because of the soultakers?"

"None that I know of. Thanks for not refuting my point, by the way." Yuki sat back in the chair. "So… My question is, why didn’t you kill us? You had a chance, this much is true, and you clearly hate us with passion. Wanted to have some prisoners to torture?"

The teen fell silent, looking stubbornly at the ceiling. Yuki waited patiently, looking at the soultaker without blinking for five minutes. She was half-minded about dropping the subject when the soultaker spoke:

"I needed information and overheard your idiot speak about kids…"

"They are called cubs."

"Whatever. Glad? Fuck off now."

"But you didn’t kill him later either," Yuki smirked, enjoying getting under Jeki’s skin, "When Sly activated his armor. You had a chance, but you hesitated to kill…"

"You don’t know anything!"

"Oh, but I do. Because I made the same mistake," Yuki frowned, remembering the time. "My big brother and I were on a mission to clear up some raiders. I got one pinned, a girl about your age, and hesitated to shoot her. She shot instead, and my brother is no more."

"My condolences," Jeki said seriously, making Yuki look at her in surprise. "The family matters. You may be a filthy, ugly-smelling mutant, but in this situation, you have my sympathy. Now fuck off, lightbulb. Next time we meet, I will kill you."

Yuki raised her arm, sniffing her own armpit in confusion. I am not ugly-smelling, right? She specifically asked Tiny and Carty to help her choose a good, not overly expensive perfume that would suit her. After all, she needed to set a good example for her future cubs, so she should start learning now. Yuki started combing and cleaning her fur, always trying to keep herself clean and nice-smelling. And before she was allowed to help as a nurse, she took a proper shower, changing into clean clothes. She is just jealous of my perfect body, that’s all. The warrior decided, standing up.

She came closer to Jeki and lifted a paw, thrusting it forward like a spear. Her fingers opened Jeki’s mouth, and she pushed one of her claws in, running the dull side against the teen’s palate.

"A word of advice, honey," Yuki purred pleasantly. "Always consider the situation you are in. Here you are, filled to the brim with medications and power suppression pills, lying helpless and spitting out bile as if it were a token. Never insult your captors. It’s a basic rule of being a prisoner. Or they may just do to you what you want to do to them. Or maybe even something far, far worse."

"Do it then, mutant!" Jeki forced herself to speak, nearly slicing her tongue against the claw. Yuki smiled to the scared eyes, noticing tears in them, and retracted her claw, patting the patient on the head before puffing her pillows and seating the teen more comfortably.

Yuki grabbed Jeki’s arm, checking her pulse and noticing that the arm was shaking. The soultaker was weak like a cub, the warrior was half surprised she was able to lift the decanter in this condition. Ignoring the weak attempts of resistance, Yuki pulled down the blanket, gently rubbing some medical gel around and into the burn. She could have done it while this idiot was still asleep, but she wanted to make the fool uncomfortable for what she did to Sly.

Seeing Jeki weak like this spoiled all the fun. Kate is right, I am getting bitchy over nothing lately. Snapping at Geldi for not wanting to kill people. Mocking a sick teen, so brave. Yuki sighed, treating the patient with care. Back when she was recovering, she first asked Hekanta and later Geldi to broaden her knowledge about medicine. Now she has volunteered to help the wounded. Other doctors were busy treating Alpha and expected her to do her job instead of having fun at the expense of this helpless idiot.

Jeki’s body was shaking, upon touching her forehead, Yuki understood that the teen was cold. She tucked the blanket all the way to Jeki’s chin, treating her like a cub. The fact that the soultaker did not throw off the blanket out of sheer resistance gave Yuki a good hint about Jeki’s condition.

Before the war, Yuki often volunteered to be an instructor for cubs. Watching over them, correcting their mistakes in approaching insectoids, chastising them when they got overly arrogant, leading them to the edge of Iterna’s shield and showing them its magnificence... It was fun! From time to time, some of them would get sick. Officially, Yuki was supposed to bring these cubs back. Shamans would never cull the little ones at this age, but the wolfkins were not supposed to get sick. If they got sick, this meant that they were weak. While nurturing the cubs back to health, shamans would beat and berate them for being weak, fueling the flames of anger in the little ones, making them experience a desire to dominate and grow stronger and healthier.

Other instructors taught Yuki what she should do to save her pupils from being beaten. Yuki would ask the rest of the group to lie and say that the sick cub was still in the field. Such things were not unusual, some cubs learned slower than the others, and there was no shame in it. Instead of giving sick cubs to the shamans, instructors were taking them to caves, nurturing them back to health themselves, providing them with small treats and games to keep their spirits up. Janine once found Yuki, who was busy doing just that. After giving her a proper beating for her deception, Janine taught Yuki the basics of medicine by healing both the cub and Yuki.

Then, shortly before the war, no one gave her these kinds of jobs anymore. And after Aranea promoted her, even the possibility of one day returning to this job was taken away from Yuki. Scouts and wolf hags were not meant to serve as instructors, it was a job for warriors and males only.

"Nope, you ain’t getting the easy way out," The warrior refilled the decanter with water and walked away to get a plate with soup, checking if it was still warm. "I heard the rumbling of your stomach even from the chair. Open your mouth and let’s solve this issue."

"The hell do you care!"

"I don’t. Not about you, anyway," Yuki moved a chair closer, preparing a spoon. "But I decided to learn how to save lives," This was a half-truth. Even Sly noticed that Yuki was taking out her anger and fear on the enemies. These feelings had to go, if she was to become a proper mother. The second part was that there was no harm in learning how to treat serious injuries. Who knows if her cubs will ever be in trouble? And… With surprise, Yuki admitted to herself that she did care for the patient. A little. "It’s my ultimate ‘fuck you’ to the person who tried to break me. So relax and eat, asshole. Then we will treat your cold. I'll be your nurse for a while, and I'll make sure you get well."

****

Svetlana walked into the training hall feeling a bit nervous. She was inside the crawler that was advancing on the Moon City. Eight days had passed since the fall of Bonafell, and now the Reclaimers were working on their preparation to begin the storm. Usually, this spacious hall was filled to the brim with countless new breeds who were bickering and snarling at each other, testing their might against each other.

All of them were moved to the field, taking their places in the trenches prepared by the regular army. Now the time had come for the new breeds to join in preparation for the siege. Even from all the way in the crawler, Svetlana would often hear the working of the Moon City’s artillery. The foes were busy shelling the reclaimers’ position with full fury, ruining the safe routes and trenches.

With stubborn refusal, the besiegers would rebuild them, never resting or surrendering. Under Ivar’s leadership, the army worked like a single organism, rarely exposing the troops to danger. The blue wyrm skillfully calculated the trajectory of the enemies’ weapons, using his own artillery and crawlers’ weaponry to silence them, while the army worked neck deep in the rocky ground.

In six days, the attack will begin in full.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Perfect for my goal.

Svetlana and the other new breed medics were kept in the back; the main army's medics were more than enough to keep soldiers safe. Only those who were too badly injured were brought into the crawler to be healed, and some soldiers of the pack, like Tiny, came back at night for their scheduled procedures. Aside from that, Ivar also made regular troop rotations, sending some troops back to the crawler to rest and recuperate, forbidding them from using the training hall.

Svetlana soon understood that she was going mad, listening to the sound of falling shells and wondering if one of them would perhaps kill Annie or any of her friends. She had to do something, anything, to keep her sanity. Instead of sitting in her room, Svetlana took this opportunity to train.

She approached the weight and lifted the fifty-kilogram chunk of metal. The medic thoughtfully lifted the weight twenty times with one paw, then with the other. Her sister was busy, Olesya was busy. There were no trainers to whom Svetlana could turn for assistance.

Velka was being mercilessly trained by Alpha, although in Svetlana’s eyes it looked more like torture. Velka had to eat a stupendous amount of food and vitamins, then run courses around the crawler until her legs gave in. Right after that came painful training for her arms and torso. At Velka's request, Svetlana kept secret that the scout was crying in her sleep; her whole body screamed in pain despite painkillers and Svetlana's care. Olesya made it clear to Alpha that no cuts or beatings were allowed. The problem was that the scout was too obedient, instead of asking her warlord to stop the torture, she tried to tough it out. But the medic could not deny that Velka was getting slightly bigger.

I must figure it out on my own. Svetlana was a cheerleader back at UNU, and a good one at that. To this day, she occasionally calls her friends and vice versa. She knew that she wasn’t physically weak by any means. But fighting… She forgot all about it. In both school and UNU, Svetlana was surrounded by some of the best people ever. They study and train together, laugh and banter together, tease and grieve together, watch the night skies, and share dreams… She never had to raise a paw on any of them.

If I were stronger, people in Belaz would still be alive. If I become stronger, Sis will have a strong ally at her side. The Number said I could be a warlord? If so, then I will become a good warlord—the one who saves lives, not takes them. Svetlana reminded herself of the goal. Letting go of the weight, she made two quick punches in the air, trying to imitate Annie’s movement. Where her punches were fluid, Svetlana felt that her own looked like the jerking motion of a broken toy.

Everyone starts somewhere. She reminded herself.

"What are you doing, mutt?" A voice asked, and Svetlana jumped in place out of embarrassment.

At the far side of the hall, a lean figure stood up, putting a barbell back on a stand. The woman was of lean build, her white strapless shirt did little to hide the impressive abs. Wiping out the sweat off her face and putting a towel over her neck, honored guest Jeki came closer, frowning with disgust.

Jeki became somewhat of a curiosity among the wolfkins, serving as a never-ending source of amusement. Everyone wanted Sonya to come back safe, so small groups of wolfkins would often come to the infirmary to cheer up the soultaker, causing her to spit curses and bile at them. Like all new breeds, she healed at a faster rate, and upon being able to walk, Jeki immediately demanded a right to train to keep her body in shape, and the command allowed her to use this hall while they were busy contacting the Soultakers for the exchange.

Jeki would often spar with the wolfkins, never holding back her punches or asking for mercy, angrily trying to assert her dominance as if she were a member of the Wolf Tribe. Yuki would always observe her fights, stopping them before the honored guest could be seriously hurt and cheering Jeki up verbally, receiving curses and threats in return. Jeki’s screams of anger could be heard all over the crawler when Yuki blocked the punches meant to knock her out. According to Olesya, a large number of wolfkins took a liking to this idiot, teasing her at every opportunity.

"What is with this form, mutie?" Jeki sized up Svetlana, scratching behind the ear, "You are wide open."

"Sorry…" What I am sorry for?! "I don’t know how to fight, and came to learn, flatty. Satisfied?" Svetlana smirked, seeing how Jeki tensed at the insult. It was all too easy to rile her up.

"Shouldn’t flea bags know how to fight by default or something?"

"I was raised outside of the Tribe. Not that I expect a bigoted loser like you to get the difference."

"Aw, you hurt my feelings, shit for brains." Jeki mockingly pressed a hand to her chest.

"Anything to keep your spirit down, cusackface. Now piss off, I need to figure out how to do this… fighty thing."

"Eh, you are serious. Boring," Jeki rolled her eyes, throwing the towel away. "Here, I’ll show you how. Punch me with all your might."

"What if I hurt you?" Svetlana sized up Jeki. The woman was smaller than her, her shirt and shorts were soaked in sweat. A faint trace of the burn could be seen through the fabric of her shirt, but otherwise the woman looked fully fine.

"As if you could, nerd! Come on already, don’t be a chicken, I won’t hit back." Jeki jumped in place, mimicking Svetlana’s jump with a smirk.

Ok, that does it. The medic decided. She raised her fist to the level of her head and made a single punch with her right, aiming at Jeki’s left shoulder. This should not hurt Jeki too much, maybe it will leave a small welt, but that’s all. Svetlana felt her knuckles touch Jeki’s flesh and prepared to see a pained expression on her face.

Instead, the soultaker made a spin, turning to her left and circling away from Svetlana. Putting her hands on her hips, the teen looked at Svetlana with a smug expression on her face, leaning back and forth on her toes.

"How did you do this?" Svetlana raised her brows, forgetting all insults.

"Ah, that. Easy. I used a spin to allow your blow to harmlessly slide off my skin. ""This flashy move doesn't really work in a real fight; your opponent will smack you against the spine during the spin," Jeki shrugged, scratching her back. "Anyway, I always wanted to pull off this move properly. Now watch me punch and show me how you will counter it."

"Why are you helping me?" Svetlana asked with suspicion.

"Afraid I will teach you wrong, just for fun? Nah, you could have done it just fine on your own. "Count yourself lucky that I am bored and have decided to grace you with my presence," Jeki walked to Svetlana, adopting a similar stance to Svetlana's. "Come on, praise me for my generosity!"

"Thank you very much for your assistance, honored guest Jeki." Svetlana spoke honestly, and Jeki’s face twisted into a mask of anger.

Jeki threw up a punch, slowing it down while it was closing in on Svetlana. The medic quickly raised her arms to take the hit on the forearms.

"No, no, no!" Jeki clicked her tongue. "You can see this hit. And your mutant kind is fast enough to react to it. Grab me by the wrist, yes, like that. Now jerk my hand and land a knee strike against my stomach. This will make your foe throw up... No, do not pull me toward yourself, you fool!!!" The soultaker screamed too late, and the medic lost her footing when Jeki’s body crashed into hers, and they fell on the floor together, rolling backward, finally stopping with Svetlana sitting atop Jeki.

The soultaker groaned from frustration, pushing Svetlana off herself. The medic offered her paw in apology, and after consideration, Jeki took it.

"Sorry, I…"

"Don’t be sorry, you moron, it was my slip!" The teen massaged her own temples with her index fingers. "Listen, you have strength and agility. And you seem like a proper medic, clearly, you are not a common dumb mutie like that nagging lightbulb. And your species is built to kill, that with your fangs and claws. How are you so dumb, then? If you jerk anyone toward yourself, they will close on you. What if I had a knife? I would have buried it in between the melons that serve you as breasts!"

"Thanks for the compliment. I am confident that, in time, even your apples will..."

"Shut your trap! It was not a compliment! Your bodily asymmetry is disgusting!" Jeki howled in frustration, walking back and forth to calm herself. "Unlike you, I am already perfect, dogface. Anyway, back to the topic. The point is to jerk your opponent to the side, throw them off balance, and launch a crushing counterattack. Your legs and arms are longer than mine, use their reach to your advantage…"

The pair spent the rest of the day cursing at each other and training non-stop, stopping briefly when Svetlana demanded that Jeki go have a meal. Through the entire day, Jeki was patiently correcting Svetlana and showing her how to properly punch, kick, block, deflect, and grab, losing herself in the process so much that she soon forgot to add insults to her every explanation.

Their training came to an end in the very deep night, and Svetlana returned to work on the whimpering Velka, doing her best to alleviate the scout's pain. The scout wasn’t beaten, but her skin was torn in several places from overextension during the training.

Svetlana cleaned the injuries, gently bandaging them afterwards, listening to Velka’s whimpering, readjusting the bandages when needed. It took her time to force the pack to express their feelings of pain instead of acting tough. It took a lot of chastising, nagging, and heart-to-heart talks, but finally they were showing her if something was hurting. Before moving on to the next part, she injected Velka with a light dose of painkillers, minor enough to avoid addiction and help the scout fall asleep on her own.

"If you want to, I can ask Alpha to stop." Svetlana offered, starting to work over her calluses. Geez, what sort of training can a wolfkin get to even get them?

Her fathers used to take her to work in the fields as a child, planting potatoes, loosening the soil, and so on. It was a hard job that built up discipline in the young girl and made her a lot of friends with the workers. But never, not once in her entire life, had she gotten a single callus.

"No," Velka groaned, "The longer I keep training with Alpha, the less she insists on starting the assault sooner. Have you seen what the field looks like before the fortress?" The scout shuddered, "I saw how five men died from a single shell, poof, and that's all, only limbs flying."Even the Omega Team asked me to keep Alpha busy… That and…"

"And?"

"And I am tired of being a burden to everyone."

"You are not a burden to anyone, Velka," Svetlana told her, finishing her job. "Trust me, you pull your weight just fine," Seeing that the scout was unconvinced, the medic tried a different approach. "Listen, I’ve been meaning to ask. After the war, will it be possible… For you to train with me? I want to learn how to protect myself."

"With claws and fangs, that’s how," Velka grumbled, "Svet, you have them. Use them."

"I kind of want to learn how to fight properly. You know, kicks and all."

"Kicks and all," Velka laughed heartily. "Oh, Svet. That… You should have asked Olesya, she is better than me at fighting. Fine, if that’s your wish, I’ll help you. Just tell the warlord that everything is fine with me! I need to keep going for the pack!"

Svetlana promised and stood up, leaving Velka to try and fall asleep. She closed the door to her room, adding new information to Velka’s personal medical card, and was about to leave when Olesya stepped into the medical bay, carrying a beer package in one paw.

"Beer? "How did you get...?"

"Confiscated from the lower ranks," The warlord said sternly, before allowing a wide grin to come on her face, "Sorry, I hacked into the system and overheard your talk with Velka. Gotta need you to lemme have a chit-chat with her, our girl needs her spirit lifted."

"Fine," Svetlana yawned, waving her paw, "Just make sure not to take too long, she needs a healthy sleep."

"Can’t promise that!" Olesya gave her a pat on the shoulder. She paused for a moment before placing the package on the table, then hugged the medic, lifting Svetlana. "And thank you for everything."

Svetlana felt Olesya’s breath against her ear, she heard the sound of a beating heart intertwining with the sound of countless machines working inside her friend’s body. Olesya was both cold and warm, her biological parts were pleasant and soft to touch, her machine parts reeked of cool air, even in the Ravaged Lands.

"I should have never decided for you, Oles," Svetlana whispered to her, returning the hug, "Please, forgive me."

"Shhh. Svet, there is nothing to forgive. Not anymore. You are alive, I am alive. We live, we struggle, and we move on," Olesya rocketed her neck, throwing off the day’s tension. "And don’t listen to Velka. When it came to fighting, she was better than me. I was simply stronger, this is why her moves barely worked on me and all our fights ended up with me caving her head into the ground."

"Are you two dating, or something?" Asked Hine’s voice. Svetlana wanted to break free from Olesya, and the warlord held her, wrapping the metallic arm around her shoulders and turning to the entrance.

"Just friends. I am planning to have my own cubs one day," Olesya smirked, nodding to the newcomers, "Hine, Mak, Danulka. What are you doing here? The order was to rest and recover before tomorrow."

"I suppose the same as you, warlord," Mak replied seriously. The male wanted to bow, and Danulka’s two fingers shot up, pressing against his lower jaw, not to hurt him but to keep the soldier standing upright, "We came to cheer up our comrade."

"Then let us do so together!" Olesya grabbed the package, gesturing for others to follow after her, "Change of plans, tonight’s order is to have fun!"

On the next day, Svetlana pushed through her hangover and saw that Jeki was waiting for her in the training hall, mockingly asking if the medic was ready to continue the lesson.

For five days they trained together, until the day came when the pack welcomed back Sonya, who arrived on the armored vehicle with white flags installed on it. Despite the fact the pack also wished Jeki safe travels, the teen only showed her middle fingers to them, before jumping in the vehicle, cursing one more time at the roaring laughter of her foes.

Svetlana began practicing what little she had learned over these days in private ever since. Meanwhile, the day of the assault was closing in.